We say no to real money. Here’s exactly when, and why.
Every agency claims standards; almost none publish them. These are the four engagements we decline — not because we can’t take the money, but because taking it would make us the thing we were built to replace.
Illustrative preview — the goal of every engagement, not a promise of placement.
The four no’s.
Reputations under 3.5★
Pouring visibility on bad reviews just shows more people the bad reviews. We’ll point you to reputation repair first — then we’d love to talk.
Pre-revenue businesses
Until there are customers and cash flow, our retainers are the wrong spend. Take the free audit’s fix list, do it yourself, come back when it’s time.
Overnight-results shoppers
AI visibility compounds over 8–12+ weeks. If someone promises you next-week rankings, hire them, save the receipts, and call us in a quarter.
An entire channel moved.
Most businesses never got the memo.
of consumers now use AI to find local businesses — up from 6% a year ago.
BrightLocal, 2026of businesses ever get recommended by ChatGPT across 350K+ locations.
SOCi, 2026overlap between Google’s local winners and the businesses AI actually names.
SOCi, 2026of local businesses have no AI strategy at all. That’s the window.
Industry surveys, 2026The Recommendation Stack™.
Five signal layers decide who AI engines name. Every engagement builds them in order — tap a layer to see the work behind it.
Layer 1 is the foundation — nothing above it works if the base disagrees with itself.
The 5 Stages of AI Visibility.
Every business sits on exactly one rung right now. Which one decides what to fix first — and roughly 99% are stuck below Stage 4.
Invisible
Engines can’t confirm you exist. Data missing, wrong, or contradicting itself.
Indexed
You exist to the machines, but you’re never chosen. In the data, absent from the answer.
Mentioned
You surface occasionally — usually in lists, rarely as the recommendation.
Recommended
Engines actively name you in your market. This is where the phone changes.
Default Answer
First name, consistently, across engines. The position competitors can’t buy overnight.
This is where the receipts go.
Every testimonial and result on this site will come from a real, verifiable client — named, with permission. Until we have them, this space says so out loud rather than borrowing someone else’s words.
“Replace with a real client quote once results land — ideally naming the outcome (‘AI started recommending us in 11 weeks’) and the person, business, and city.”
— Name, Role · Business, City
Replace with a real, measured result: starting Answer Share → current Answer Share, over a stated number of weeks, for a named client who approved it.
Never publish a number we can’t evidence.
Replace with a short case study: the situation, what we changed across the Recommendation Stack™, and what happened — including anything that didn’t work.
Link to the full write-up when it exists.
Delete this entire section once real proof replaces it — an empty promise is worse than no section.
Six promises — all checkable
before you pay us a dollar.
Published pricing
Every price on the page. No quote calls, no setup-fee ambush.
Month-to-month
No contracts. We re-earn the business every single month.
You own everything
Site, domain, content, data, CRM — in writing, from day one.
Free audit, no strings
A real human review, yours to keep whether you hire us or not.
Honest timelines
Visibility compounds over 8–12+ weeks. We say so before you buy.
We name what didn’t work
Every report lists the misses. Trust is built in the down months.
Same industry. Opposite rules.
Find out where you stand before you spend a dollar.
The free audit shows your Answer Share, your visibility stage, and your first three fixes — yours to keep either way.
Questions owners actually ask.
Short-term, yes — that’s precisely what makes it credible. Every bad-fit engagement becomes a bad result, a bad review, and a client who was right to be angry. Saying no is quality control.
Pure price shoppers. If the only question is ‘who’s cheapest’, the $99/month shops will win and should — we’re built for owners buying an outcome, not a line item.
Take the free audit anyway. It’s free precisely so we can tell you the truth — including ‘not yet, and here’s what to do first’ — without either of us pretending.